It was one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled, Lori Saine, who has served as a member of the Colorado House of Representatives since first winning office in the 2012 elections. Now, the reason that we first became aware of Lori Saine, if you recall, was that her named popped up during our profile of Vicki Marble, one of her fellow members of the Colorado state legislature. Marble was the latest in a series of Republican legislators who read a parody web site, got outraged about an article on it (specifically a fake story about people on food stamps using their EBT cards at pot dispensaries), and then tried to legislate based off of their own hysteria. Now, as most were outraged over Marble blaming health problems African Americans face because of their genetics on her opinion that they “eat to much chicken” (which is super-racist), Lori Saine proved she isn’t worthy of the meaning of her surname, when she decided to give a show of solidarity to Marble by showing up at the next committee hearing with a box of Popeye’s chicken. She didn’t apologize, and claimed it was just a coincidence.0
Saine is against just about any kind of regulation you can think of, like after a methane explosion on a property that was once an oil and gas well was allowed to have a home built over it destroyed that house, and killed two people, there were calls to place some sort of regulation on the oil and gas industry to, y’know, keep the public informed where they might be leaving explosive oil and gas reserves behind. But again, Saine’s main interest is in allowing a big business lobby to operate unchecked, and shrug about it whenever bodies turn up as a result.
And those interests are downright fanatical at times, as you can see exhibited in this video, where in the middle of the legislature, Saine starts chanting “JESUS!” again and again after talking about a “spiritual battlefield” over her proposed abolition of abortion. If she really wanted to prevent abortions, you’d think she would have been all for supporting the rest of the Colorado legislature’s attempts to start a program to fund birth control or IUDs for those who can’t afford them… but no. She’s a fanatic. She actually argued against it by saying, “When subsidizing a commodity, you also reward the behavior surrounding the commodity. So in this scenario, the government is subsidizing sex.” And… that’s not how that works.
If you’re not getting the idea that she’s one of those die-hard Evangelical extremists just yet, we’ll point out that her record on LGBT rights including voting against a proposed ban on gay conversion therapy on minors, again, not just once, but twice. because she apparently feels Christians should be allowed to do whatever it takes to turn their kids straight.
Big surprise, she endorsed Ted Cruz for president. But you may have heard about the infighting at that convention between Cruz-aligned “Never Trumpers” and those who sold out their principles to Trump… well Lori Saine was in the middle of that, being caught on video feuding with fellow CSGOPOTD Jason Rapert of Arkansas. We don’t think that’s the worst crazy thing, we’re just entertained whenever two nutballs we’ve profiled go after each other, kind of like Ken Wantanabe advised in that last Godzilla flick.
We’ll also note that gun control is a hot button issue in Colorado over the past few years, who in the wake of the mass shooting in Aurora at a movie theatre showing The Dark Knight Rises, passed a ban on large-canister magazines like the ones James Holmes used to try to rack up a huge body count. Well, not once, but twice, Lori Saine has sponsored an attempt to repeal that ban, because she’ a 2nd Amendment fanatic and would rather help the gun lobby get rich rather than try to prevent whatever psychopath goes on a rampage from racking up more kills. Maybe that’s part of the reason that in December of 2017, Lori Saine managed to exercise her 2nd Amendment rights to the fullest she thinks they should apply, and got herself arrested for trying to carry a semi-automatic pistol on her person through TSA checkpoints at the Denver International Airport. Charges weren’t filed in the incident, and Saine insisted she wasn’t trying to “test” security. Which means she either forgot she was packing heat, or she knew and wanted to sneak it through for some other purpose. Where was she headed, though? To an annual conference by the conservative group ALEC, who was so put off by her arrest for violating a completely reasonable firearms law that they chose to give her an award for being a hyperpartisan twit.
Again, we’re not sure how long Lori Saine’s career will last, as she represents Weld, Colorado, one of the more conservative parts of the state. In November, she’s up for re-election against Brian Bobian, a father of two who is campaigning alongside several Colorado Democrats up and down the ballot, and who seems like a loyal friend to everyone across Team Blue. The American public are supposedly wanting to return to normal, sane politics after seeing how far they have devolved on the GOP side the past few years… hopefully, Colorado’s District 63 does their part to prove that true.
One Year Ago, July 13th, 2017: Lori Saine (CO)… Original Profile
Two Year Ago, July 13th, 2016: Steve Brunk (KS)… 2016 Update
Three Years Ago, July 13th, 2015: Steve Brunk (KS)… Original Profile
Four Years Ago, July 13th, 2014: Ron Paul (TX)